Saturday, March 23, 2013

For many, classical Indian Raga music and visual art are two different things. But for Maestro Kartik Trivedi they are inseparable, one and the same, as he has delicately explored with his very own unique sound and impressionist paintings all with the touch of his fingertips on the piano keys and with a paintbrush.

Kartik Trivedi is a living legend from the Northwestern state of Gujarat, in India. He is considered one of the most fascinating contemporary artists of our time. As an accomplished classical pianist, composer, and painter he has been honored with innumerable awards and accolades around the world.

Few artists accomplish so much in their lifetime and his history is nothing short of incredible. Maestro Trivedi granted me an afternoon for a very personal and rare interview. I am honored to share with you a rare insight into his personal world, his art and his music.

Trivedi: I was born in a small village called Lunsar on December 10th, 1937. I remember a quiet and peaceful childhood and as early as age five I began drawing. My father named Shri Laxmishanker Nanjibhai Trivedi, was the head school master and a fine water color painter. He nurtured in me my visual creativity. My mother named Sharada, was a folk singer and she was my first and most important influence in music. She taught me the fundamentals of folk and Raga music. Here were the beginnings of my humble life and career in fine arts.

When I was a child, my natural surroundings were also very encouraging. There was a very beautiful and fine lake nearby and a shrine that my mother used to take me to called 'Shri Mataji Divine'. I used to sketch there for hours and I used a newspaper in the beginning, because I didn't have drawing paper.

When I was six years old I entered a statewide art competition and won first place. I was the number one painter and that was a very big encouragement for me at the time. And then as time goes by, my father got transferred from one place to another, and that in a way allowed me to learn different cultural aspects. I was very happy that I had the opportunity to meet different types of people and learn about their customs and their music.

Leticia Alaniz: Did you have a piano at home?

Trivedi: I did not have a piano at home. I was introduced to a keyboard instrument when I was ten years old called a harmonium. It has the same keyboard as a piano but it sounds like an organ. So I was able to learn scales just like if it was a piano.

Leticia Alaniz: You have lived in the US many years, what year did you come?

Trivedi: I came to America in 1967. I went to a school, Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio and there was a very beautiful student center, and on the second floor there was a Steinway grand piano. At night I used to go there to practice and I found lots of students interested and they would all sit around the piano and listen to me play. I was encouraged a lot and they said, "Why don't you give a concert? We like your music very much". After That I had learned how to sing north Indian classical music which I play known as Hindustani music.

Leticia Alaniz: How did you start incorporating the piano into Ragas and into that style of classical music?

Trivedi: When I was in India I used to play a flute called bansuri, and I had learned how to sing classical musicals and I learned how to play the sarod, an indian stringed instrument. When I was experimenting I found out that it is possible that someone can play the complete form of Raga music on the piano. In my days we had maybe three or four musicians interested that were experimenting with the sound of the piano.

I use the second pedal to sustain the sound and the third pedal to elevate the sound so it almost sounds like the sound of the sarod. It depends on how you strike the note. And after you strike the note, one is expected to create some kind of appropriate environment so that the Raga can sound in a most appropriate way.

Leticia Alaniz: You're one of the few artists that has been playing this type of music around the world. Maestro Ravi Shankar was one of the first whom introduced classical indian music to the western world and in particular to the US. Are you in any way compared to him or are you asked questions?

Trivedi: I have a lot of respect for the late Maestro Ravi Shankar. He is a very great composer and a very great sitar player. I used to listen to the great sarod composers as well and when I was living in Santa Clara, I decided to study a masters degree in world music at the San Jose State University. I worked with many great music teachers which highly influenced me into learning more. At that time my main instrument was the piano. Today, I have my own piano which is a german piano made by Schulz Piano Company and it is already about 115 years old!

Leticia Alaniz: And it still sounds good!

Trivedi: Oh, very beautiful! It has a beautiful sound and I just love that sound! In America for some time I played piano in Indian restaurants. I would play somewhere in the corner and not disturb the patrons.

Leticia Alaniz: You went from playing in restaurants to playing at the world famous Carnegie Hall! Tell us more about that.

Trivedi: I performed at Carnegie Recital Hall in New York City. I performed in the first half, I opened the concert. And the second half, my teacher played with the sound of the sarod. The sound of sarod is always there because the sarod always attracted me so much. And then I also performed at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

Leticia Alaniz: No small feat!

Trivedi: You may not believe this but when I gave a concert at The Lincoln Center, the New York Times printed my photograph on a music page and you know, I have a very old bow tie, I loved to wear that bow tie. I have kept that bow tie as a memento. But my friends tell me that I look very funky!

Leticia Alaniz: An artist is an artist!

Trivedi: I just love that funky look! I have a three piece suit which is now like a four piece… but that's alright…

Leticia Alaniz: An artist dresses as he must dress… (we laughed a lot)

Leticia Alaniz: I want to ask you about your paintings… Your art is considered very impressionistic and beautiful. What inspires you?

Trivedi: When I was in high school in Gujarat, at that time I had the opportunity to see the books on French and American impressionism. From the very beginning I liked pastel colors and somehow the different sense of composition at the same time, the choppy brushstrokes and all that, you know. The colors were so fantastic and the analyses of sunlight and light in general. So I liked that and I immediately started working in an impressionist style.

When I came to America, I was stationed in Cleveland, Ohio and not to far away from my apartment there is a very great and famous museum, The Cleveland Museum of Art, and that is where I saw the originals. Until 1967 I had never seen an original.

I used to lecture inside the museum for adult education. I would take a group of 10, 20, or 30 people and would take them from one gallery to another gallery. At that time I was studying to receive a MA degree in Art History from Case Western Reserve University. My first degree is in the area of Economics and Political history that I received form Gujarat State University. As You call Texas State we have Gujarat State which is a very developed state culturally and economically.

I had a lot of student friends that studied art history in my lectures and they told me about Kent, Ohio. I heard about the University and so I went there and I received a MFA, Master of Fine Arts in paintings. At that time I was a very fine, a very good impressionist painter and I just continued to experiment in that particular style.

Leticia Alaniz: What painters do you consider your most influential?

Trivedi: One, which I would like to mention is Claude Monet. I used to teach Claude Monet's paintings. I taught art history classes and later art appreciation. We analyzed and talked about different styles of paintings, cubism, impressionism, post impressionism, renaissance, baroque and all of those..

Leticia Alaniz: In your own art work, what subject is what you paint the most?

Trivedi: My style of painting is impressionist. But I also paint in a very native style, a very decorative Indian style of art. In 1960, while still living in India, I won a national recognition award. My work was highly appreciated. That in a way encouraged me a lot. At that time I was working near a college near the Arabian Sea, near the seashore so I painted my surroundings.

Leticia Alaniz: Do you incorporate mostly nature and landscapes, portrait or religious motifs?

Trivedi: I do paint portraits, but mostly I call myself a landscape painter. I love landscapes so much!

Leticia Alaniz: And Speaking of portraits, I know of a very famous one that is hanging in Buckingham Palace.

Trivedi: Yes well you see, my few friends from London, England called me and they said that quite a few artists from all over the world have presented their paintings about the special occasion, the marriage of Lady Di and and Prince Charles. And I wanted to do something and I found some photographs of the entire wedding procession, so I decided to do a special painting of the marriage procession. I received a very, very nice response, it was a great honor. Prince Charles' secretary wrote me a very fine personal letter saying that they all loved my work. Of course that encouraged me.

After that I did a special painting for late President of France François Mitterand and he liked my work very much and today as I understand, the painting has been sent to The National Cultural Heritage museum of France. I feel happy, I say Voilå! But very good, ¡Muchas Gracias! Eternally thank you!

Leticia Alaniz: I understand that your paintings are also hanging in the house of late President Ronald Reagan and also with Bill Clinton, among many others.

Trivedi: Yes that's true! I did a special painting for late President Ronald Reagan. The subject is called, "Welcome Home". When the 52 hostages came back from Iran, there was a very big procession. In the back you see the senate building, the congressional building in Washington DC and there was so much happiness everywhere. So I studied a couple of photographs then did a special painting. President Ronald Reagan liked it and Nancy Reagan also liked it very much. Another painting that I did is called "Spring Melody". The paintings had an impressionistic touch. A lady from California called me and told me that my paintings were put on display at the presidential library in California which is near somewhere in the Los Angeles area. I am so happy! A poor artist like me can do little good things in this world.

Leticia Alaniz: You're an amazing artist!

Trivedi: President Bill Clinton's painting was, "Autumn in Chicago". I think that event was also very well covered by CNN News.

Leticia Alaniz: Did you get to present the painting personally?

Trivedi: Yes! I met him personally! There is a book written about me and it's called Kartik Trivedi, Contemporary Impressionist, that is the title. That was printed in New York City and this was many many years ago. So I presented him the book and we took a photograph and he was very kind, and he said, "I will carry the book", and so he was carrying the book with him. An he also wrote me a very nice thanks letter. I feel very happy and I thank him and thank everybody, those who arranged it. And the painting I think they said they liked it.

I presented a second painting to President Bill Clinton when there was a very big parade in New York City. It was when the American Army came back from, let's see, from where? Saddam Hussein's country, what is that called? Oh my mind!

Leticia Alaniz: Iraq, Desert Storm.

Trivedi: Yes! That was a very big parade. You remind me because I may be talking wrong, I get lost! So whenever everybody is ready I'm ready…

Trivedi: When the American Army came back from Iraq I presented a painting to President Bill Clinton and Lady Clinton. There was a very fantastic parade that I attended and did some drawings. There were so many very fine and big American flags hanging everywhere. That was a very wonderful subject for a painter like me, other people have also painted this subject, and so I painted that and they liked it. This painting is also at the Presidential Art Collection a the White House.

These are some of the things that I like. You see, this is so funny… When I did my first painting for President Ronald Reagan, he was a very kind person to me and he used to write letters to me and I used to read, and you know the postman used to come all the way to the second floor of my apartment. He would knock on the door and say, "Mr. Trivedi, you open the door, I have something for you!" And I said, "Oh my god, I don't know what that could be." But he said, "Mr. President has written you a personal letter!" I would tell him, "I have a can of soda for you!" And he was always so happy to get a can of soda. You see, before President Reagan wrote me a letter, that was always a question. Everybody used to ask me, "Is there anybody who knows you?" And my Indian background taught me one thing, "Yeah, my god knows me", but it wasn't helping me at all. So I had a couple of xerox copies made and then I would say, "Yeah, yeah, Mr. President knows me!" So I would tell my friends sit down, have some tea or coffee. It was a very interesting and funny thing.

Suddenly, I would do another painting. I made one when I was in Santa Clara, California, and I took a painting all the way to the White House and it was wonderful. I enjoy doing special paintings for dignitaries, a religious leader or a great musician, a writer, or a playwright, actors, actresses. You see, I'm a painter, I'm a teacher, I was a teacher, but now I retired I think since January 2011. So now I play piano.

Leticia Alaniz: You retired form teaching but not from painting…

Trivedi: No, no, I still paint. Recently I have written a book and I came to Dallas city because I heard that the people of Dallas city are very friendly and very generous and very loving and caring, so since the last two or three weeks, I'm experiencing their love and care and all that. I would like to come back to Dallas some day.

Leticia Alaniz: You are always welcome.

Trivedi: Thank you! Hardly you cannot find such wonderful people anywhere else. Music has been very much a part of my soul. Can I talk something about my mystical experience?

Leticia Alaniz: Oh yes, of course!

Trivedi: This is a most true story… This was 1975 and I was living in Bedford, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. One day in the morning it must have been around 4:00 or 4:30. And a very, big, golden light… I saw a golden light, someone woke me up, I was still in the bed, and the background was the white wall of my apartment, that golden light spoke to me, the language is English, and said that at one point in time I was a very famous musician in Germany. And they said we have reserved your german house, you are in heaven, it is filled with music. And after my death, they will take me back to my German house which has a very grand piano. The golden light talked to me and said that we are going to take you back to music. And the thing was so personal, so special.

Leticia Alaniz: It sounds like it. So spiritual!

Trivedi: Yeah, why would anybody care to come from heaven, without appointment or anything in the early morning and wake me up and say, "Hi…Hey you, I want to talk to you!" At the time, I had to have eight graduation units of the 96 I needed to graduate with a MFA, so eight units I took in music and I made a presentation. This was music I know, this much I can play, this much I can talk and they liked it very much. And they also gave me a scholarship. They said, "Yeah, you are very good". So, eventually after that I fell down and broke my fingers and took care of my fingers. I moved to Santa Clara and I went to San Jose University and told them my story. "I said, look I want to study music." They said, "What do you do?" I said, "I'm an art instructor." So they asked me to come for an interview. They looked at my credentials and they encouraged me to study music. If I want to go back to 1975, I would say that the golden light was burning fire.

Leticia Alaniz: Well I don't think that was just a golden light because here we have proof of your recordings. It was a dream for you, but it is a reality for your fans and those whom appreciate fine music. Tell us about this.

Trivedi: The Raga Impressions! You know I'm an impressionist painter, and when I look at the keyboard of a piano, I think, why can't I create a painting.. you see each key on a piano keyboard has a special color. I look at the entire keyboard like there are so many colors there. So striking a piano key in such a way, so it should create an impressionist brush stroke. So the basic idea is, can I do that, can I be allowed to do that, and lots of great musicians say, yes it's very possible and also very acceptable because you are still working within the classical discipline. So within the classical discipline, I play classical hindustani music. I get a tabla player which is a pair of indian drums, and we practice and I try to create the entire mood, the Raga mood that is. So in The Raga Impressions there is a complete presentation in a most traditional, classical way. But then in some cases I am running of it and creating and impressionist feeling of a Raga. It shouldn't be very difficult to understand, that is what I'm trying to do. Something very light, very much just searching for a light, in a most lighter way.

Leticia Alaniz: The cover to this collection of Ragas is absolutely beautiful and it is also one of your paintings. Will you play one of your Raga pieces for us?

Trivedi: Yeah, I certainly would. Thank you, thank you very much for asking me! Let me tell you one thing. I play very much in a traditional style. You know, our classical Indian music is very monophonic, at a time you touch one note. Western classical music is a form of compound sound which we call polyphonic. I will do two small pieces for you and your audience. One will be very traditional, I will try to play like a sarod. The other piece which I will play in a Raga, at that time I created a very special romantic feeling. My work got very much influenced by Chopin and Franz Liszt, and one I like a lot Schubert. Here is a piano, my favorite instrument because I like the sound and it is the discipline that I belong to. I'm a historian of hindustani music and in my studies in the classroom and outside the classroom, I love Frederick Chopin's trait, I'll do a little bit of that for you. Remind me if forget, there is something that is not in our tradition, a heavy imposition and the introduction of the polyphonic system. So then, I'm a student. I'm trying to create a totally new music.

Leticia Alaniz: It's all unique and original. Everything that I have heard of yours is unique. I have never heard anything so amazing like this because there are many artists whom record a specific style but yours is totally unique.

Kartik Trivedi & Leticia Alaniz

Trivedi: Thank you, I appreciate your good comments and as you know a good comment always helps the artist. A bad comment can kill the artist. People get so much joy out of it, ahh I killed him man! Stop! help him, help that poor guy or poor girl! So we need a lot of encouragement and a lot of good things around us. By the way, soft drinks always help me, getting lost into my little world of art and music. Sometimes one can goes inside my system, and I feel oh my god, I'm on the ninth cloud, it could be even the tenth cloud who knows!

Leticia Alaniz: Let's hear you play a little bit.

Trivedi: First what I will do is play a small Raga, then I will talk a little bit, then a polyphonic piece.

Leticia Alaniz: This is a mystical experience!

Trivedi: Yes, very mystical! Oh! I'm gonna get you! I like the sound of piano so much.

Leticia Alaniz: Yeah, so do I… What is this piece you're going to play for us?

Trivedi: It is a very traditional classical raga a Noon Raga, it is a noon melody, and I will play in a very traditional style like an instrumental solo. Next I would like to do a special piece for you and your audience in a western polyphonic sound which is basically in a pentatonic scale.

Leticia Alaniz: Thank you very much for playing two beautiful pieces for me. It has been an immense honor and pleasure to meet you and I thank you for your time and I appreciate you coming out for this very special interview.

Trivedi: I feel very honored to be interviewed by you and I just don't know how to say thanks, thanks a million!

Leticia Alaniz: It has been all my pleasure and I thank you. May you have a long life.

Maestro Kartikbhai as he is respectfully called in Gujarat culture, is an artist whom had a dream since his early childhood. Since his humble beginnings he worked hard to become an accomplished musician, composer and painter. He has an enviable personality that flourishes with grace and comedy and if you look carefully it is exposed onto his music and paintings. With sincerity and dedication he has lived a life of accomplishments holding four Masters degrees in Economics/Political History from Gujarat State University in India, Master in Art History from Case Western Reserve University, Master of Fine Arts from Kent University, and a Master in World Music from San Jose State University.

His piano compositions are deeply moving, mesmerizing, and emotional and they convey his message through one's body, mind, and soul. It is music that cannot be placed in one single category. It is a loving marriage of classical indian hindustani music and western classical. He is a living legend, a rare musician.

Note: This is a transcript of an interview that was filmed live and unscripted. A special appreciation for cameramen Tony Quinn and Joe Rodriguez of JR Media Group International, Yogi Patel of Pratham USA, Mihir Patel, Prerna Bohre, and David Roziere for providing the location for filming.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

A style or genre of motion picture marked by a mood of pessimism, fatalism, menace, and cynical malevolent characters in a sleazy setting and an ominous atmosphere that is conveyed by shadowy, low-key photography and foreboding background music.

A film of this genre.

A dark street in the early morning hours, splashed with a sudden downpour. Lamps form haloes of light in the murk. In a walk-up room, filled with the intermittent flashing of a neon sign from across the street, a man is waiting to murder or to be murdered… the specific ambience of film noir, a world of darkness and violence, with a central figure whose motives are usually greed, lust and ambition, whose world is filled with fear, reached its fullest realization in the nineteen forties. A genre deeply rooted in the nineteenth century's vein of romanticism developed through U.F.A, the principal film studio in Germany and the murky fog-filled atmosphere of pre-war French movies, flowered in Hollywood as the great German or Austrian expatriates - Fritz Lang, Robert Siodmak, Otto Preminger and Billy Wilder - arrived and were allowed more and more freedom to unleash their fantasies on the captive audience. Here is a world where it is always night, always foggy or wet, filled with gunshots and sobs, where men wear turned-down brims on their hats and women loom in fur coats, glamorous gowns, perfect lipstick, and guns thrust deep into their pockets.

Humphrey Bogart in the Maltese Falcon
Directed by John Huston (1941)

It was during the summer of 1946 that French moviegoers discovered a new type of American film. Five movies flashed one after the other across Parisian screens, movies which shared a strange and violent tone, tinged with a unique eroticism: John Huston's The Maltese Falcon, Otto Preminger's Laura, Edward Dmytryk's Murder, My Sweet, Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity, and Fritz Lang's The Woman in the Window. During the Nazi occupation of France, US films were not allowed in France and so the summer of 1946 was the first opportunity for French audiences to see these US World War II era movies.

Long cut off from the United States, with little news of Hollywood production during the war, living on the memory of Wyler, of Ford, and Capra, French critics could not fully absorb this sudden revelation. Other films followed: Frank Tuttle's This Gun for Hire, Robert Siodmak's The Killers, Robert Montgomery's The Lady in the Lake, Charles Vidor's Gilda, and Howard Hawks' The Big Sleep imposed the concept of film noir on moviegoers. A new series of "dark film" had emerged in the history of cinema.

A series can be defined as a group of motion pictures from one country sharing certain traits (style, atmosphere, subject matter…) strongly enough to mark them unequivocally and to give them, over time, an unmistakable character. Moreover they all reach a peak, that is, a moment of purest expression. Afterwards they slowly fade and disappear leaving traces and informal sequels in other genres.

The history of film is, in large part, a history of film cycles. There are, of course, certain titles that resist classification: Orson Welles' Citizen Cane or Clifford Odets' None but For The Lonely Heart are among these. Often a remarkable film cannot be classified because it is the first in a new movement and the observer lacks the necessary perspective. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was unclassifiable before it engendered the German expressionist style of cinema "Caligarism." It is a style that included both the horror genre as well as the film noir movement.

Since the start of the talkies, one could cite many examples: in the Unites States, social realism, gangster films; in Germany, the farces from 1930 to 1933 which inspired a like movement in American comedy, in the USSR films dedicated to the October Revolution; in France the realism of Marcel Carné, Jean Renoir, and Julien Duvivier.

The existence over the last few years of a "série noir" in Hollywood is obvious. Defining it's essential traits is another matter. Some of the film noir qualities are nightmarish, weird, erotic, ambivalent, and cruel. In some titles, the cruelty of some bizarre behavior is preeminent. Often the noir aspect of a film is linked to a character, a scene, or a setting. The Set-up is a good documentary on boxing: it becomes a film noir in the sequence when scores are settled by a savage beating in a blind alley. Rope directed by Alfred Hitchcock is a psychological melodrama which attaches itself to film noir through its intriguing sadism.

Film Noir is french for "black film". It is the presence of crime which gives film noir its most constant characteristic "The dynamism of violent death" as said by the famous film critic Nino Frank whom first coined the term film noir. Blackmail, accusation, theft, or drug trafficking set the stage for a narrative where life and death are at stake. Sordidly or bizarrely, death always comes at the end of a tortured journey. In every sense of the word a noir film is a film of death.

Since 1946 Hollywood had exported a score of films to France which have as their main themes criminal inquiries supposedly based on actual cases. In fact, a title card or a narrator often alert the viewer at the start of the film that this is a true story which took place in such and such a time at such and such a place. The shots on the screen faithfully reconstruct the start of the process: a call to the homicide bureau, the discovery of a body. Sometimes it may be a seemingly inconsequential incident or some report from a neighborhood police that sets events in motion. Then comes the tedious "leg" work by the cops: the careful but fruitless searches, ineffective surveillance, and futile decoys. Finally there is a glimmer, some object found, a witness, which leads to a climatic chase and uncovering a den of cutthroats. Film noir is from within, from the point of view of the criminals.

The documentary-style picture examines from without, from the point of view of the police official. In features such as The Naked City, the action begins after the criminal act, and their murderers, their minions, and other accomplices move across the screen only to be followed, marked, interrogated, chased, and killed. Police investigators are traditionally portrayed as righteous men, brave and incorruptible. The "police documentary" is more accurately a glorification of the police.

This is not the case for the noir series. If police are featured, they are rotten - sometimes often murderers themselves as in Otto Preminger's Fallen Angel or Where the Sidewalk Ends. At minimum, they let themselves get sucked into the criminal mechanism. As a result of this screenwriters have frequently fallen back on the private detective. It would have been too controversial always to impugn American police officials. The private detective is midway between lawful society and the underworld, walking on the brink, sometimes unscrupulous but putting only himself at risk, fulfilling the requirements of his own code and the genre as well. As if to counterbalance this, the actual law breakers are more or less sympathetic figures. The narrative is manipulated so that at times the moviegoer sympathizes and identifies with the criminals.

As for the ambiguous protagonist, he is often more mature and not too handsome. Humphrey Bogart typifies him. He is also an inglorious victim whom may suffer appalling abuse, before the happy ending. He is often masochistic, even self-immolating, one whom makes his own trouble. At times he is a passive hero who allows himself to be dragged across the line into the gray area between legal and criminal behaviour, such as Orson Welles in The Lady from Shanghai.

Lauren Bacall in The Big Sleep (1946)
Directed by Howard Hawks

Finally, there is ambiguity surrounding the woman: the femme fatale who is fatal for herself. Frustrated and deviant, half predator, half prey, detached yet ensnared, she falls victim to her own traps. This new type of woman, manipulative and evasive, as hard bitten as her environment, ready to shake down or to trade shots with anyone--and probably frigid--has put her mark on noir eroticism, which may be at times nothing more than violence eroticized. The female protagonist is being depraved, she is murderous, doped-up or drunk. She is a mysterious flawed human with character imperfections and makes use of her hypnotic seductive sensuality. Her charms ensnare her lovers in bonds of irresistible desire, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations. The phrase is french for "deadly woman". The femme fatale is often described as having power akin to an enchantress, seductress, vampire, witch, or demon, having some power over men.

In the film noir genre lighting was perfected and used on a grand scale with such techniques as high-contrast, revealing certain characters in bright, almost washed out light, while casting others in almost total shadow. Low angle camera setups were used to make the subject seem taller and more powerful. Deep focus, which was a new technology at the time, was employed lavishly allowing the camera to maintain in focus objects and characters in the both the background and foreground in the same shot. Film Noir cinematographers were masters of light and darkness. Hungarian-born John Alton is one of the most recognized and celebrated cinematographers for setting the stage for the stylizing of such films as The Big Combo, He walked By Night, and Talk about a Stranger. Many cinematographers mirrored his style and craftsmanship but none ever came close to his careful use of chiaroscuro, the powerful striking contrast of light (chiaro) with the elements of dark (oscuro). One thing these disparate films have in common is the beautiful crisp black and white photography. Unlike most cameramen of his time, Alton used very little grayscale, noting, "the most beautiful photography is in low key with rich blacks." He was an artist whom liked working in the dark. Other major cinematographers during this classic period included John F. Seitz who shot Billy Wilder masterpieces Double Indemnity and Sunset Blvd. andBurnett Guffey whom worked at Colombia Pictures shooting titles such as The Reckless Moment, In a Lovely Place and Scandal Sheet.

All the components of film noir yield the same result: disorienting the spectator, who can no longer find the familiar reference points. The moviegoer is being presented a less severe version of the underworld, with likable killers and corrupt cops. Good and evil go hand in hand to the point of being indistinguishable. Robbers become ordinary guys: they have kids, love women, and just want to go home again as in the The Asphalt Jungle. The victim seems as guilty as the hit man, who is just doing his job. The moral center is completely skewed and in the end the chaos goes "beyond all limits."